According to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, big man JaVale McGee will not be coming to Boston after all. Bulpett reported Thursday afternoon that his representative and the Celtics could not come to an agreement on a contract.

According to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, big man JaVale McGee will not be coming to Boston after all. Bulpett reported Thursday afternoon that his representative and the Celtics could not come to an agreement on a contract.

As a result, McGee remains a free agent center available for any team to scoop him up.

The Celtics certainly were not perfect Wednesday night. They shot miserably from the floor (33-of-88) and from the line (11-of-20).

But when you commit just three turnovers the entire game leading to zero points for the opposition, your margin of error is as wide as the Grand Canyon they couldn’t find with a jump shot. Or at least, it should be.

The Celtics set a new franchise record for fewest turnovers in a game with three since the NBA started keeping such records in the 1970-71 season. Think about that. That covers a period that included Jo Jo White, Tiny Archibald, Dennis Johnson and Rajon Rondo. Never had a Celtics team taken such meticulous care of the rock than they did Wednesday night in the heart-pounding 85-84 win.

“You only end up the game with three turnovers, you should win the game,” Marcus Smart said. “That’s what we did tonight. We turned the ball over a lot against [Cleveland]. We just wanted to come out and be strong with it and execute on the offensive and defensive end.”

Added Isaiah Thomas, “That was great. We were decisive, we played with energy and we made the right plays for the most part.”

Thomas had just one turnover in 27 minutes while Smart played a perfect game over his 40 minutes. The only other turnovers came from hero Tyler Zeller and Avery Bradley.

The Celtics committed just eight turnovers against Golden State on Sunday night and should’ve won the game but fell apart down the stretch offensively.

“That’s one of our five things that we have made a big deal for our team and moving forward,” coach Brad Stevens said. “We went into the game eighth in the league in turnover percentages which is good, and last time we allowed Utah back in the game because we threw the ball all over their gym and almost lost that game there. So we placed a huge priority on it, but it helps to have Isaiah handling the ball because he’s a hard guy to get it from.”

What makes this all the more impressive is they did it against one of the longest teams in the NBA, as Stevens calls the Jazz and one of the most defensive.

“I’m not worried about the misses,” Stevens said of the 37.5 percent shooting from the floor. “I’m worried about the execution as far as late we were a little off in what we were trying to do on the high pick, just because we haven’t been there together. And so we literally walked into the locker room, drew it up, and talked about it right after the game.

“Because we have a bunch of new guys and we’re not practicing, so we’ve got to get better on the fly and as we’re thinking about it. But the number one thing I walk out of here with is: Damn, their defense is good. Like that’s an outstanding defense, and it’s got the potential to be an outstanding defense for a long time, with that length.”

When last we saw JaVale McGee as a starting NBA center, the 7-footer was a 23-year-old averaging 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.6 blocks in 27.4 minutes a night. The Celtics would sign a rim-protecting big man with that kind of talent in a nanosecond. Except, when last we saw JaVale McGee as a starting NBA center, the 20-win Washington Wizards dumped him on the Denver Nuggets for an oft-injured, 29-year-old Nene in 2011-12 — not exactly a ringing endorsement of the uber-athletic former first-round pick.

Since then, McGee signed a four-year, $44 million contract, only to find himself relegated to the bench behind the likes of Timofey Mozgov, Kosta Koufos and Jusuf Nurkic for reasons both within (effort) and beyond (left tibia stress fracture) his control. After appearing in just 22 games for Denver over the past two seasons, the Nuggets had to sweeten the pot with a first-round pick just to dump his salary on the Philadelphia 76ers, who subsequently waived him six games into his short-lived Philly tenure.

“He’s been paid a lot of money in our league,” said Ainge. “He’s had some injuries, but he hasn’t lived up to his potential yet. We’re hoping that he can under [Celtics coach] Brad [Stevens]’ tutelage, and I think he’s in a good place emotionally and mentally. I think he really wants to get his career on the right path.”

The Celtics beat out “10 teams, mostly playoff contenders,” for McGee’s services, if only because they offer opportunity few other competitors cannot. Terms have not been disclosed, but assuming his contract is comparable to the career resurrection offer the C’s made to Evan Turner (2 years, $6.7 million), why not take a flyer on a guy who has averaged 15.2 points, 10 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per 36 minutes for his career?

It’s important to keep in mind McGee has not been a good NBA basketball player for some time now, particularly on the defensive end, where opponents have made nearly two-thirds of their shots around the rim against him over the past two seasons. Three teams have given up on McGee in his mid-20s, and he’s become of a “Shaqtin’ a Fool” legend. None of that gives any indication he’ll help the Celtics this season.

Still, over the past two years, Stevens has shown the ability to harness potential, squeezing value out of Turner and Jordan Crawford, even if neither plays much of a role in the rebuilding process. The Celtics still have two early second-round picks from the 76ers as a result of the Crawford trade and likely view McGee’s signing as a similar low-risk acquisition that won’t prevent them from cutting ties with him down the road.

Meanwhile, McGee will have every opportunity to compete for minutes on a Celtics team that currently features Tyler Zeller as the only legitimate center on the roster. Add Jared Sullinger’s season-ending injury and Kelly Olynyk’s health issues, and McGee could suddenly be a rotation player for the Eastern Conference’s eight seed. Two weeks ago, nobody could have guessed Isaiah Thomas would be throwing alley-oops to JaVale McGee during a playoff run in Boston, but here we are. For better or worse, this ought to be fun.

“There are a lot of growing pains with a lot of young kids,” added Ainge. “They don’t go about it right. They don’t go about their career correctly. They’re into the NBA lifestyle as opposed to being a pro, working, trying to improve yourself and having a long-lasting career. I’m not sure what’s gone on with JaVale and why he hasn’t reached his potential, but I know he has a lot of potential and I do think that coaching personalities, team philosophies, team style of play and opportunity are usually what it takes for young kids to succeed.”

The experiment didn’t work for any of McGee’s four coaches over his previous four seasons, but this is the NBA, where athletic 7-foot free agents with plenty of tread left on their tires get signed in no time.

If there was one person in the building not surprised by the brilliant adjustment made by Celtics coach Brad Stevens on the game-winning inbounds play from Marcus Smart Wednesday night, it was Gordon Hayward.

He was, of course, a star player for Stevens at Butler University when the Bulldogs went to back-to-back national title games, losing to Duke and UConn. Hayward was also the man who scored what appeared to be the game-winning basket with 1.7 seconds left, giving Utah an 84-83 lead.

Then the Celtics called timeout. They wanted Smart to inbound the ball. But the rookie was having all sorts of problems getting the ball. Another timeout. Then Stevens diagrammed a play to get the look that would free Tyler Zeller at the rim, if Smart could get the ball in.

“They switched the play before when Marcus couldn’t get it inbounded with Hayward and (Derrick) Favors,” Stevens said. “So, we wanted to try to get that switch again, so we just ran a little action to get that switch again and then (Rudy) Gobert was on the ball so he wasn’t at the rim. So we were hoping to slip and catch it a little bit cleaner and lay it in, but, you know, that was the goal ‘ and it ended up being okay.”

Was Stevens surprised that Gobert was on the ball?

“That’s a hard call, and I think that with Marcus Smart taking it out and Gobert on the ball it’s hard to deliver a good pass,” Stevens said.”If Gobert tips it the game’s basically over, unless it tips right to us. So it’s easy to second-guess that stuff but I won’t because I saw how long Marcus had to throw over just to get the pass to where it was. It’s another reason why we had to throw the ball in the air, though.”

Zeller caught the ball, gave a quick pump fake and delivered the game-winner as time expired.

‘It was a great pass,” Hayward said of the Smart entry pass from midcourt. “That’s what Coach Stevens does. He’s excellent in those situations of coming up with a play, I know it better than anybody. It’s a great play, great design, they knew we were switching. The pass had to be perfect to get over Rudy (Gobert) and Rod (Rodney Hood) and it was and then he (Zeller) made a good finish too. Credit them with their finish too, but that’s not where we lost it though, we should have been better.”

While Zeller was remarkably calm after the winning shot, Stevens couldn’t resist showing off his incredibly dry sense of humor.

“He just wanted to enjoy 1.7 seconds at the rim and being the biggest guy, I think, for once,” Stevens said. “He fumbled it a little bit, but we always say with 1.7 you have two dribbles. So we know there’s time to fumble the ball, regain yourself, and get it back up.

“He’s a very businesslike person, he is an everyday guy, he works really hard, he has a good sense of humor and he’s a good guy. But with some guys you might be concerned about them hitting a last-second shot and how they’re going to react the next game; I’m not concerned with him.”

It wasn’t a fun game to watch most of the way through, but it turned into a thriller late as the Celtics faced the Jazz Wednesday at the TD Garden. Gordon Hayward hit a jumper over Tyler Zeller with just 1.7 seconds remaining to give Utah an 84-83 edge, but it was Zeller that would get the last laugh. Brad Stevens drew up a play to perfection and Marcus Smart hit Zeller under the hoop for what turned into the game winner at the buzzer. The shot went under review, then the Garden erupted at the refs announced that the Celtics were coming away with an 85-84 win.

Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder were the game’s two high scorers with 21 and 18 points respectively — both coming off the Boston bench. Avery Bradley was the Celtics’ only starter to reach double figures with 13. Trey Bruke and Derrick Favors led the way for Utah with 16 points apiece. The Celtics are now 24-35 after the win, while the Jazz drop to 24-36 on the season.

Yes, both teams did play in different cities last night, but 34-33 at halftime is not a common sight in the NBA. Typically a cold start will get better for both teams. But after the Jazz took a 19-18 lead into the second quarter, the teams combine for only 30 more points in the half — leaving the Celtics with a one-point edge at the break. Despite turning the ball over just once, the C’s managed their 34 points on 32.6 percent shooting (including 16.7 percent from downtown). The Jazz weren’t much better, shooting a mere 37.1 percent, but attempted 11 less shots than Boston (46-35).

LINEUP ADJUSTMENTS

Despite leading at the half, Brad Stevens’ club was clearly struggling offensively, so he opted to make a move. Jae Crowder — who has been making a huge impact recently off the bench — started the second half over Brandon Bass. Crowder was the C’s lone bright spot offensively in the first half, tallying 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting. Crowder wound up going scoreless in the third frame, but the slack was picked up elsewhere.

AVERY BRADLEY CARRIED THE LOAD WHILE HURT

Bradley returned to the locker room in the first half with what the team deemed to be a left elbow contusion. He returned, but scored only two points in the half. Coming out of the break was another story, as Bradley scored all 11 of the Celtics points in the first six minutes of the third, before handing the torch over to the C’s new finisher.

ISAIAH THOMAS CLOSED AGAIN

It was Zeller who hit the game-winner, but Thomas came up huge for Boston late, scoring 19 of his 21 points in the second half. As he does so often, Thomas dominated the final frame, scoring 10 points while pacing the Celtics offense throughout. Thomas played only the fifth most minutes on the team with just over 26, which begs the question: When will Thomas get more minutes? Coming off the bench may be the right role for Thomas, but after proving how lethal of a scorer he is, it’s a matter of time until we see him on the floor more.

KELLY OLYNYK RETURNED (KIND OF)

After missing 18 games with a badly sprained left ankle, Olynyk was back in the lineup on Wednesday for the first time since Jan. 22. Olynyk saw just over seven minutes of action (all in the first half) and went scoreless in his return. “I thought Kelly was fine, but the way the game was going I felt like [Jonas] Jerebko was active and all over the place,” Stevens said following the game.

Obviously, Stevens did not give Olynyk much of a chance on the floor, but the forward looked a step behind and is going to have to earn his minutes to get back in the rotation. Clearly Olynyk has not yet returned to 100 percent.

Marcus Smart has been recognized for his efforts to keep the Celtics in the playoff hunt through a crazy trade season in Boston.

Smart and Minnesota Timberwolves sensation Andrew Wiggins were named Wednesday the Kia NBA Eastern and Western Conference Rookies of the Month, respectively, for February.

Smart ranked third among East rookies in scoring (9.8 ppg), assists (4.3 apg) and steals (1.64 spg) for the month. He also was fourth in rebounding (4.5 rpg) and averaged a conference-rookie-high 32.6 minutes in 11 games for the Celtics, whose 7-4 record was tied for fourth best in the East.

The 6-4, 220-pound point guard set single-game career highs in rebounds (10), assists (nine) and steals (five) during February. Smart scored in double figures in six of his final seven games of the month.

Smart’s playing time increased significantly following the Dec. trade of Rajon Rondo to Dallas. He continued to impress even as Danny Ainge brought in Isaiah Thomas in a deadline deal with Phoenix. Wednesday against Utah marked Smart’s 16th start of the season.

As for Wiggins, the rookie out of Kansas won the West award for the fourth consecutive month and helped the Timberwolves to a 5-6 record, their best mark in a full calendar month this season. The 6-8, 199-pound forward led all rookies in scoring (16.8 ppg) and minutes (38.7 mpg), and he shot 45.7 percent from the field and averaged 4.8 rebounds.

On Feb. 23, Wiggins scored 30 points in a 113-102 loss to the Houston Rockets, his third 30-point game of the season, matching the Minnesota rookie record set by Isaiah Rider in 1993-94.

Here are just some of the highlights of the month for Smart:

Feb. 1 vs. Miami: Dished out a career-high nine assists and had only one turnover in an 83-75 loss to the Heat.

Feb. 4 vs. Denver: Grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds and added four points, eight assists and three steals in a 104-100 victory over the Nuggets.

Feb. 20 @ Sacramento: Scored 16 points and contributed five rebounds and a career-high five steals in a 109-101 loss to the Kings.